Vokoun was cleared to return to action this week after a life-threatening bout with blood clots and has begun practicing with the team, but there are a couple of issues working against the 37-year-old netminder. First, he's 37-years-old, which in goalie terms isn't necessarily time to put him out to pasture...
...but given the seriousness of the health scare he just went through and the fact that he has been on blood thinners for nearly a year and nowhere even close to the game suggests that he's going to need some time to get in "Goalie Shape" - to retrieve the peripheral vision, to regain the quick-twitch motor skills, to get the muscles properly accustomed to the pretzel-like twists that netminders typically get themselves into.
“My agenda is to practice and see how I feel and how it goes." Said Vokoun on Tuesday. "We’ll see. I’m trying to get back, see how I feel, making sure my health holds up. Obviously, being out for five months, you never know.”
The Penguins are in a sort of a quandary. As it stands right now, Fleury is being backed up by rookie Jeff Zatkoff, who has impressed with a 9-2-1 record with a 2.64 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage - and Fleury seems to have recovered from melting down in last season's Stanley Cup Playoffs.
And although Fleury has bounced back and regained form to lead the National Hockey League in wins this season, the post-season is a whole different animal, and to have someone with big-game, post season experience like Vokoun behind Fleury could raise the confidence and comfort level of the team and their fans.
Vokoun took over for an overwhelmed Fleury in the playoffs last season and posted a 6-1 record in leading Pittsburgh to series victories over the New York Islanders and Ottawa Senators before running into the full-steam-ahead Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference Finals, being swept by the Bruins who shut down the Penguins' powerful offensive attack and used their transition game to take target practice on the besieged veteran stopper.
The 2.25 goals against average yielded by Vokoun in that series would normally have been plenty good enough to find themselves playing for the Cup, but the Bruins Tuukka Rask yielded but two goals for the entire series - and no team is going to win by scoring a half a goal per game.
So Vokoun has some confidence going forward, and if he can get his skates under him, at the very least he gives coach Dan Bylsma some options to work with - not to mention a decision to make regarding a post-season roster, as he has the option to send Zatkoff back to the AHL. He could also elect to go with three goalies.
Whatever Bylsma decides, Vokoun is under no delusions, knowing that his career has many more games behind it than ahead of it - but he also takes solace in the fact that the team wants him back.
"The team showed interest in me coming back. I’m still a paid player, under contract." Vokoun acknowledged. “It’s nicer for me, either way that it’s going to end up, if I didn’t finish my career in the stands and watching but instead finish as a player. I’m putting everything into it and trying to get in good shape and, hopefully, come back to playing.”
“If I don’t feel like I’ll be helping or I’m not where I need to be to play, I’m not going to try to get in the lineup and be a burden to the team,” Vokoun added, “It’s not easy, but I’ve played for a long time. As you get older, you realize how quickly the times goes past, and you miss hockey. It’s nice to be back and be part of the team, whatever my role is."
http://www.sportsinjuryalert.com/2014/02/penguins-goalie-tomas-vokoun-cleared-to.html#.UweUZIUcq58
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